Various events since then have seen Second Life usage stabilise, grow or decline suddenly. The release of Second Life viewer 2 last year was associated with a sudden decline, for example; whereas the reappointing of Philip Rosedale as titular CEO, and the later appointment of Rod Humble steadied the decline and even caused the downward trend to temporarily reverse.

Depressingly, nothing seems to be significantly improving retention by new users, or halting the attrition of established, already-retained users.

If you want my two-bits’ worth (and you probably are interested, since you’re already here), then it’s that no feature or set bundle of features is going to return Second Life to growth. The capabilities and visual appeal of the platform and viewer may well be a problem, but they’re not the right problem.